Rira: A Reminder of the Environment and Iran’s Nature Lovers Behind Bars
“Nature needs its advocates.”
These words were shared by Aras Amiri, a former British Council arts manager and ex-Evin prisoner, in her opening speech at “Rira: The Call of Iran’s Environmentalist Prisoners” on Monday, June 5th at the University of Edinburgh.
“Rira,” the name of the event co-curated by Amiri and Dani Admiss, holds a special meaning of its own. The word, which holds no English equivalent, derives from the name of a poem by the late Nima Yushij, an Iranian poet remembered as the father of Persian modernist poetry. A native of Mazandaran, Yushij’s poems were often inspired by his life and connection with nature. Rira, as explained by the curators, “…conveys the ambiguity of the strong emotional impulses felt when depicting scenes from nature,” and is thought to be the sound used by the women of Mazandaran when they called for the return of their cattle.
Amiri and Admiss organised the event with the goal of gathering internationally renowned environmental scientists and conservationists to discuss Iran’s fragile wildlife, and more importantly, to remind us of those currently being held behind bars for preserving it.
More than five years have passed since the group of conservationists working with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF) led by Iranian-Canadian conservationist Kavous Seyed-Emami, were arrested on false accusations of espionage.
Kavous Seyed-Emami suspiciously died just two weeks after his arrest inside his Evin prison cell.
Sepideh Kashani, Houman Jowkar, Niloufar Bayani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Taher Ghadirian, Sam Rajabi, and Morad Tahbaz were on their way to saving the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah, but today, they are being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. To date, there has yet to be any evidence proving any of these claims.
When it comes to understanding the Islamic Republic’s motives behind the imprisonment of this group of nature loving, Iran loving environmentalists, question marks float around the room.
“We don’t know. They haven’t found anything against them so it’s something that’s still a question. The fact is that they’re in jail for 5.5 years. It’s a complex issue, one thing to remember is that it happened after serious civil unrest in Iran starting in Mashhad…the government reacted to civil society,” explained Dr. Stephane Ostrowski, a close colleague and friend of Houman Jowkar.
What is known, however, is that every day these conservationists are held in prison is irreversible time lost in the race to save Iran’s wildlife. With an estimated 25 remaining Asiatic cheetahs in the wild, the rare cat is on the brink of extinction.
Dr. Christian Walzer, executive director of Health at the Wildlife Conservation Society, who participated in the panel discussions at Rira emphasised the importance of collaboration when it comes to conservation efforts, “To do conservation you need to be passionate, have the education, you need the tools and you need to be collaborative.”
“To do conservation you need to be passionate, have the education, you need the tools and you need to be collaborative.”
The imprisonment of conservationists in Iran and the lack of cooperation from the Iranian authorities has put a detrimental halt to environmental efforts in Iran. While there are several environmental concerns in Iran, the extinction of the Asiatic cheetah, currently only surviving in Iran, is perhaps the most worrying.
The IUCN Cat Specialist Group and species survival commission (SSC), who has worked globally and in Iran, stated that the challenges working with the Iranian authorities and Department of Environment over the years have been arduous and overwhelmed by both financial and political factors. “If the Asiatic should have the slightest chance, we need to put forces together.”
Leili Khalatbari, a conservation biologist based in Portugal, recalled her warm memories working together with the imprisoned conservationists Sepideh Kashani, Houman Jowkar, and Sam Rajabi. Khalatbari stressed the difficulties of conservation work in Iran and explained, “Conservationists are not recognized as having a profession in Iran.” This lack of official recognition, she argued, will have consequences in the future.
The problem of science being undermined, as Dr. Stephene Ostrowski explains, is a global problem which involves more than just scientists. In order to fight against the destructive effects of misinformation and disinformation, people must look to the facts provided by scientists for decision making.
Additionally, as artist-photographer and researcher Dr. Patricia Macdonald explains, scientists should look for ways to translate their work into other forms of media and creative outputs in order to help share and interpret data.
After being arrested during a family visit to Iran, Aras was held in Evin, where she became friends with Niloufar Bayani and Sepideh Kashani in the women’s wing.
Today, she advocates for their release and calls on the global community to coalesce for the planet and the people who have risked their lives protecting it, “May this bitter injustice end soon and they can return to their families and nature.”
Rira is a new project on Iran’s endangered wildlife and the instrumental work of its imprisoned environmental scientists.
